


Postcards from Lanzarote

by tauhou



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, F/F, Feelings, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-09
Packaged: 2019-10-11 15:41:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17449730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tauhou/pseuds/tauhou
Summary: Charity comes over for the first time after her trip to Lanzarote.   Ness is going to be calm, firm and to the point. She definitely is.





	Postcards from Lanzarote

**Author's Note:**

> I was wondering what their dynamic would be like reconnecting after being apart, particularly given Vanessa's mild grump at Charity in the pub. I was also curious about how Charity had felt being away from Ness, as, even though she hadn't got in touch, Charity seemed to have had Vanessa on her mind while they'd been apart. (This is Ness's POV though.)

Vanessa has stopped bothering to check her phone. She's changed into her favourite yellow jersey and is now curled up on her sofa. The telly is chattering away happily enough to itself in its late-night programming way, but she's staring blindly through it. Has been for some time.

She's worked out what she wants to say. No chickening out this time. She's going to let Charity know that vanishing without a word like that was not on, special holiday for the kids or otherwise. She's going to be calm, firm and to the point. She definitely is. She sighs, bringing her nearly empty glass of wine up to rest against her chin.

She glances up when there's a familiar tap-ta-pa-tap at the door and leans forward to flick off the tv. Then she swirls the last of her now room-temperature wine around the glass and swallows it, grimaces, hauls herself off of the sofa and heads over to open the door.

Charity's standing on the step outside, her hands shoved into the pockets of her black overcoat and her shoulders high. Her eyes are glinting in the light from the open doorway, bright against the dark. "Hey babe" she grins, one eyebrow up.

Ness draws in a deep breath, her chest tight. "Hey." she replies, wincing internally as she hears that tightness sneak into her voice.

Charity steps forward smoothly, "Might have been nice and warm in Lanzarote, but not a patch on the hotness of you babe."

Ness stays where she is. She wants to sort this out here, make her point before anything else happens. Before she gets distracted.

"And it's definitely much colder back 'ere, I'm freezing my arse off out here Ness." She drops her voice, "Can I come in or, will you forgo my..."

She interrupts with a hand on Charity's chest and tries to find the words to explain why she's not letting her in, but none of them sound like what she wants to say, or the way she wants to say it, and as the silence drags on she eventually just shakes her head and steps back to get out of the other woman's way.

"Thanks babe." Charity flashes her a smile that lights up her face. She looks dead gorgeous when she does that. Every flimming time.

Ness closes the door and turns to find herself toe to toe with her not-girlfriend in the cramped space of the hallway.

Charity waits a moment then reaches out and tips Ness's chin up to kiss her. Her fingers are firm, her intent clear, but it's not insistent, not a demand. It could be. They've been there before, and there's a echo of it in her touch tonight which Ness can feel right from her jaw to her knees. Charity barely ghosts her lips across Vanessa's, and it's enough to have her scrambling to hang onto enough of her brain to remember anything of what she wants to say.

"What's up babe?" Charity asks gently, pulling back slightly, surprising her. "You not pleased to see me so much after all?" She's still smiling but there's a wariness in her eyes that Ness doesn't like.

Ness frowns. "Er, no, I don't think so."

"Well," Charity draws out the word, running her hands around Ness's waist and pulling her in. "Why do I get the impression something is bothering you." She narrows her eyes sharply. "It's not the postcard thing is it?"

The shorter woman drops her chin a touch defensively, looking up at Charity. It is possible she is pouting. Just a little.

"Oh, babe. You can't be serious."

Ness holds her gaze, her lips moving to form a firm line.

Charity's face falls. "What, you gonna get that much out of a dodgy publicity photo and 'Weather's lovely, wish you were here' on the back? Never took you for the platitudinous type." Her hands drop down to Ness's hips, lingering uncertainly.

Ness's eyes wander to the hollow between Charity's collarbones. She watches her neck muscles tighten on an in breath, and then relax.

"Look, babe. I'm sorry. I don't really run to much in the words on a page department, ok? They always look all lost and stupid when I try to put them down." She shrugs, sighing through her nose.

"A drawing would have been fine." She reaches up to dust an imaginary bit of fluff off of the shoulder of Charity's coat. The wool is rough under her fingertips, despite the fine tightness of the weave.

Charity snorts, her eyes following the movement of Ness's hand. "Drawing is even more of a dead loss than writing, babe. Probably frighten the postman. Or get impounded by horrified officials at the Royal Mail's sorting depot."

Ness barely suppresses a smile and Charity catches her eye, searching her face. "I do have some other creative talents though. And if I recall correctly, last time I was here, I was half-way through employing them when your son demanded your attention."

She steps forward, feeling Charity's hands slipping back round her waist in response. She leans backwards a little into the hold, creating a half-playful suggestion of looking down her nose at Charity. "He had lost Rubble on his bedroom floor and needed him back before he could go back to sleep. And, by the time I had got him settled, you were flat out, snoring gently to yourself and hogging the duvet."

"Yeah, well you don't half keep a girl waiting sometimes."

She declines to answer that. Instead, she cocks her head a little, dragging her bottom lip out from under her teeth.

Charity's eyes flick to her mouth, and when she speaks her voice is a touch deeper, an undercurrent running through it. "You know, I had a few ideas of what to do next, while I was stuck in that hotel room with the dodgy air conditioning night after night. Might make it up to you, you know, for..."

"Running out on me?" Ness chips in, a grin bubbling up through her body, tingling as it goes.

"Never did, babe." The taller woman leans in slowly for a kiss, which is returned properly this time.

Charity smells of vanilla tonight, and possibly coconut. Different from before her trip away; maybe a new conditioner? It's unexpected, but nice nonetheless. Nice enough that, by the time Ness remembers the important bit of what she wanted to say, her breathing is unreliable. She drops her head for a second, pulling away. Then she places her hands on the lapels of Charity's coat and swallows thickly before trying to speak.

"I had to find out from Chas; where you were. And the look she gave me... I don't need her pity, Charity." She chances a quick look up at Charity, who, for once, looks serious, thoughtful even. She doesn't respond, except to eventually nod a concession.

And Ness will take that for now. It's not a small thing, that nod. And her skin is still humming from where Charity's hands and lips have been, and she knows very well how good it will feel when she finally gets to release this tension that's been building for days now, and she's curious about what Charity has been imagining while she was away.

So she slips her hands inside Charity's coat, pushing it open. She knows Charity is watching her as she traces her fingertips across the top of her shoulders. They're just below Ness's eye-level and she can feel a slight bump in the thin fabric of her top where it sits over her bra strap. She slides her hands up to meet at the back of Charity's neck, glaring up at her, mock serious.

"So, those ideas of yours. Do you want to see if they're any good?"

Charity's nostrils flare faintly on a sharp breath in and her voice has a warm grin in it when she says "How about we go upstairs and find out?"

 

A while later, they're lying tangled in Vanessa's bed. She's sprawled face-down, Charity's hand drifting occasionally through strands of her hair. It feels nice; gentle and quietly attentive. They've been talking, nonsense mostly, a follow on from some incoherent mumbling Ness was reduced to by one of Charity's better holiday ideas. But they're quiet now, and Ness is so close to sleep that she nearly misses it.

"I did, you know. Wish you were there."

**Author's Note:**

> I'm new at this, so feedback is very welcome!


End file.
